Strong Hearts: Sequel to Where Does My Heart Beat Now
by Sympathy Heart
Summary: Just when the Dawson's thought they had everything under control their lives are pitched into chaos; Ellen struggles with the thought of motherhood & Casey faces losing Tate to his ex when she shows up. Even Gabriel finds himself struck down by an injury which is sure to keep him from doing what he loves. It will take a strong will & a strong heart to overcome the challenges. R&R!
1. Prologue

**Strong Hearts**

**Prologue**

_August_

The flashing lights of the ambulance kept Ellen focused on the task at hand. Whenever those lights went on her attitude changed dramatically. All she had heard over the radio was that the emergency she was on her way to was a collision on the highway leading south of her former hometown on Paris, Texas. No big deal. She had been on many calls involving motor vehicle wrecks, each having their own level of gore. Not one of them had made her want to quit her job as a paramedic/ER nurse.

"Two minutes out." The driver called over the radio she wore on her belt.

What Ellen thought would be a routine motor vehicle accident was about to test her abilities… and sanity. The moment the ambulance pulled to a stop on the highway and the doors flew open she faced what would be her worst wreck to date. A blue Mustang was crushed underneath the back of a tractor trailer, the roof sheared off and scattered all over the pavement along with millions of pieces of glass. She knew from the condition of the car there was no possible way anyone could've survived.

Grabbing onto the gurney, Ellen and another paramedic rushed over to the scene just as a fireman pulled a young woman out of the driver's side window. The woman was soaked in blood and appeared lifeless. On the other side of the mangled car was a second gurney with a body bag lying on top of it with a body concealed inside.

"What happened?" Ellen questioned once the woman was strapped down to the gurney and Ellen had attached several monitors to her. She silently swore once the monitors started showing the vitals. _Dammit. This chick is dangerously close to flat-lining._

"The Mustang was going about ninety when it ran into the back of the semi that hadn't gotten up to speed yet." One of the police officers explained while helping the paramedics load the gurney into the back of the ambulance, "Her friend wasn't so lucky, not that I'm saying this girl is. The other girl didn't end up in one piece."

Putting together the state of the car and the officer's words, Ellen formed a disturbing mental image. Before the ambulance doors were closed, the scarlet-colored woman climbed into the back, already pulling out supplies she'd need to keep the woman alive. _Good thing Seamus isn't here to see this. He'd be out cold from all of this blood. _The memory of her husband fainting from the sight of a needle being pushed through his skin after he took a knife to the chest at the Gettysburg reenactment made her shake her head. _Pussy._

An alarm going off brought her back to reality. The woman's blood pressure had dropped. Ellen immediately set about doing whatever she could to bring it back up to normal levels, injecting different types of medicine through an IV the other paramedic had started in the top of the woman's foot seeing as how he couldn't find a vein in her arms. Moments later the alarm silenced, indicating the blood pressure had climbed out of the danger zone. If they could just get her back to Paris Regional fast enough she would at least have a chance of surviving.

After what seemed like hours the ambulance pulled into the ER bay, and the paramedics rushed the gurney through the sliding glass doors with a police officer pushing the gurney with the corpse of the woman's passenger right behind them after taking it from a second ambulance. As they rounded a corner on the way to a room another alarm went off, and Ellen noted it to be the one monitoring the heartbeat; it was nearly flat-lining. Without saying a word, the scarlet woman jumped on top of the gurney as it was still moving and began CPR. Over and over she went through the routine she knew all too well, trying to revive the woman. At long last they arrived in the room with Ellen still doing the compressions while keeping her eye on the monitor. No change. By then, the doctor had arrived, along with someone to insert and ET tube into the airway. They were almost ready to intubate when a long, silent beep rang throughout the room.

"Give me those damn paddles!" Ellen shouted and made sure no part of her body was touching the patient once she had placed the shock paddles on the patient's chest and side. "Everyone stay clear!"

A powerful current of electricity made the patient's body jolt violently upward, but the alarm continued to sound with no change in the vitals. Ellen touched the paddles to her once more. The line remained flat across the screen, forcing Ellen to return to the compressions since the shocks didn't do any good to jumpstart the heart. The rest of the medical team did whatever they could to bring the woman back, only to be haunted by the sound of the alarm. For over thirty minutes they fought the battle until Ellen threw the paddles against the closest wall out of defeat. They could do no more.

"Alright, someone call it." Ellen got down from the gurney in preparation to leave the Emergency Room. The fact that she couldn't save the woman grated on her; she never wanted to lose a patient.

The doctor looked up at the clock on the stark white wall to the right of the gurney and said, "Time of death: fourteen thirty-seven."

On her way out of the door, Ellen passed by a radiology tech, who had shown up to take the bodies of the victims to another part of the hospital for x-rays to determine the cause of death. She stopped Ellen and asked, "Where is the body I'm taking?"

"_Bodies._" Ellen nodded her head in the direction of the two patients, "Obviously the one behind me, and the other one is under that sheet."

The tech went over to inspect the body covered by the sheet, and when she lifted it her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates upon realizing the body wasn't intact. That, or how much blood was dripping down the sheet onto the tile floor. "Are you freaking kidding me?!"

"Nope."

"They want me to x-ray _this _to find out how they died? Are they that stupid?!" The tech dropped the sheet back over the decapitated corpse and continued her rant, only to be cut off by Ellen midsentence, "It's kind of obvious how-."

"I-I don't care. I'm just the paramedic, not the one giving the orders." She remained silent as she made her way through the ER, her mind in a daze. How could she have let that patient die? Glancing down to the floor she noticed a blue cell phone lying face up with the screen turned on. Ellen bent down to pick it up and that was when she saw what mostly likely ended up being the instigator of the wreck. On the screen she read through the text conversation between the woman she had worked so hard to save and the other person who was quite possibly her boyfriend. Anger flooded Ellen's mind as she read through the conversation until her eyes fell on the last message sent from the guy, words that made Ellen's blood boil: _no man would ever want to be with a_ _backstabbin_g _whore like you._

Not wanting to see the hurtful messages any longer, Ellen slammed the phone down on the counter of the front desk right in front of a police officer. "You might need this piece of trash for evidence…" On her way through the double doors she called back over her shoulder to clarify what she had meant, "I'm referring to the bastard in the text… That piece of trash!" _I think I'll take the rest of the day off._

Somehow as she was leaving, she had managed to convince her best friend, Faye –a nurse in the NICU– to take off as well since there weren't any babies in the intensive care nursery that needed her care. Together, the two women clocked out and made their way to Ellen's pearl white Nissan Titan parked in the front parking lot. Both of them wanted to get back to their men for some much needed cuddle time. That was how a Dawson preferred to unwind from a stressful day. Without glancing back at the hospital, Ellen pulled away onto the highway in the direction of Jefferson, Texas.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_September_

"I just don't see why I have to leave, too."

Gabriel followed his wife around the house just like a little puppy dog in an effort to get her to change her mind about making him leave the house along with his father, Rob. Letting him stay was out of the question, especially when Kate had spent all week planning and getting ready for her Girl's Night with the rest of the Dawson women and Ava, girlfriend to Gabriel's best friend. Ever since they had returned home from their eventful trip to Gettysburg in July she had wanted a night where all of the women could have a night of fun without their spouses around to screw anything up, and knowing her husband and Sean, that was bound to happen. Just once Kate wanted a night without a man in sight, a night where she could let her hair down and be crazy for once. In fact, she wanted to get a bit tipsy.

"Look, you and your father are going to go out and have a great time with the other men." Kate placed a bowl of Chex Mix on the table she had set up underneath one of the windows in the living room and straightened the paper plates, "As for Shannon, she will be under the watchful eye of Beth at her home, along with Tate. So, you have nothing to worry about."

He was about to continue questioning her when Casey, his cousin, was chased out of the kitchen by Faye, his wife. The lilac woman wielded a broom and pointed the stick end at his head, a wild look in her eyes. The red mark on his forehead was indication that Faye had whacked him with the broom once already. Casey stood slightly behind the vine green male as if Gabriel could protect him from further beatings. The shorter of the two men had his mouth crammed full with one of the desserts Faye had been working on in the kitchen, which was probably the reason his wife had chased him from the kitchen in the first place.

Faye took a roll of gray duct tape and put a giant 'X' across the kitchen's doorway. "No one with a penis attached to them is allowed to cross this threshold. Consider this a fair warning."

Casey stuck his tongue out at her, "And what if I do? You gonna broom me to death?"

"Oh, no… I wouldn't do that." A wicked grin appeared on her features, "I'll have Ellen deal with you."

A look of fear crossed Casey's face at the thought of what his most hated family member would do to him. It never failed, he always ended up with a concussion or some other injury whenever Ellen had her way with him, "Okay, I'll stay out."

"The same goes for you, too, Gabriel."

"The other male threw his hands up in surrender and slowly backed away from Faye, keeping his eye on the broom leaning against the wall near her, "You don't have to tell me twice."

Kate was about to go back into the kitchen to finish getting the food ready for the night, but a knock on the front door made her change her mind. A smile spread across her face at the sight of her husband's brother standing on the front porch after she opened the front door. Dangling from his right hand was a zebra print purse; it was definitely not his color and looked out of place next to the muscular and well-toned man in front of her.

"You better take care of my hubby, Seamus. Don't let him do anything stupid." The longer he stood there holding the purse she began to wonder what had happened to his wife, "Where's Ellen?"

All of a sudden Ellen's head sporting fiery red, thick curls popped out from behind the dark green male, a wide grin spreading from ear to ear, "I've got the booze!" She produced a large bottle of Absolut vodka and a pack of screwdriver-flavored Smirnoff before pushing past Seamus on her way into the house.

"And I've got her purse." Seamus held the purse up beside his head and batted his eyes at Kate, "Does it match my eyes?"

Kate could only giggle at her brother-in-law. She allowed him to walk by into the house after the scarlet woman, who had found a place to put the alcohol amongst the many snacks on the living room table. By the way Ellen flitted about around the goodies she looked every bit ready for a fun night, unlike her usual hostile self. Kate looked her up and down, inspecting her wardrobe choice for the night. Not much color except for black, black, and more black with the occasional gold accents thrown in. She wore a long-sleeved black cropped top in an off the shoulder design. The shoulder straps were large link gold chains to help keep the shirt on her body. As for her pants, they had a little more variety in color, but not much; black and gray camouflage cargos over the tops of her combat boots, which were also black. The only other gold accents save for the chains on her shirt were the large gold hoop earrings visible since Ellen had her thick hair pulled up into a high ponytail.

_Hasn't the girl ever heard of color? _Kate thought and leaned over to whisper in Seamus's ear, "Does she have any other color in her closet besides black? Introduce her to pink or purple or _anything_ but black! She looks like she's an undertaker."

"I'm leaving that one alone, Kate." Seamus dropped Ellen's purse onto the couch before making his way toward the kitchen, paying no mind to the duct tape across the doorway. He didn't get any more than one foot across when he took the working end of the broom to the face, "What the hell?!"

"I SAID STAY OUT! YOU DIDN'T LISTEN!" Faye continued swiping at Seamus, who had to duck out of the way to keep from getting hit again.

"But I just want a beer."

"Do you have a penis… a wiener… a schlong… a dick? Hmm?" She sighed heavily at the confused expression she received in return to her questioning, "If you possess any of those, stay out!"

"Beer?"

"STAY OUT!" Faye shrieked loudly, her voice nearly cracking.

The oldest of the three men walked away from the kitchen, occasionally glancing back to make sure Faye wasn't on his tail. He went to stand beside his brother and cousin just as Rob and Riley, Rob's brother, trotted past them from outside on their way to the kitchen for a drink. Neither of them knew about the hidden danger that lay beyond the doorway. They found out soon enough, because the second they approached the 'X' Faye burst through it brandishing one of the chairs from around the dinner table. She chased them through the living room and out of the front door, jabbing the legs of the chair at them while the others watched helplessly from the front door. Just before Faye hit them with the chair, she dropped it in front of them, narrowing her eyes.

"Now would be a good time for all of you hooligans to skedaddle before I go all kung fu on you."

All of the Dawson men gathered close to the trucks in preparation to head out; fine by them if it meant not getting beaten to death by Faye and her arsenal of kitchen supplies. By then they just wanted to leave the farm and let the women have their fun. That was until Sean arrived with Ava several minutes later. The strawberry blonde woman carried a tray of what appeared to be chocolate covered fruit while Sean made a beeline right for the house.

Gabriel shook his head at his best friend; it had become Sean's new ritual to invade their bathroom whenever he arrived at their house. "Pee time?"

"Yup!" Sean said on his way through the front door.

Casey called after the man to warn him of the danger if he strayed from his path, "_Whatever_ you do, stay out of the…Oh, too late…" He cringed as he watched his wife plow after the unsuspecting man and take him down to the ground by the ankles just inside the door. _What has gotten into her?_

No longer interested in occupying the bathroom, Sean returned to the group outside, clearly afraid to go anywhere near the house or Casey's wife, for that matter. He quickly kissed Ava on the cheek, gaining a giggle from her in response to the sweet gesture. He was ready to get on the road with the other men to enjoy a woman-free night. It would be the first time in a long time they would be able to go to a bar and drink to their hearts' content without the women nagging them. He was the first one into Gabriel's green Dodge Ram truck and laid on the horn to tell the others they needed to hurry.

"I can hear the Shiner Bock calling my name! Would you losers hurry it up?!" Sean hollered out the passenger window.

Gabriel hugged Kate tightly while savoring her sweet fragrance of lavender mixed with citrus. He knew he had nothing to worry about knowing she wouldn't do anything crazy. "We'll be back late tonight. Don't wait up on us."

"Are you kidding me? We're still going to be partying hard by then." Kate pressed her full lips to his before pushing him along toward his truck. She could also see Faye and Ellen say their goodbyes to Casey and Seamus, respectively; Ellen acted a little frisky by slapping her hand against her husband's backside as he walked away on his way to his brother's truck. He seemed to pay no mind to her strange behavior.

All six women watched the green truck disappear down the driveway a few minutes later. When they could no longer see it they started for the house, Ellen taking the lead at a jog and leaving the others hurrying after her. She immediately went over to one of her duffle bags on the ground beside the couch and pulled out several small jars containing different colored powders along with bottles of liquid.

"Okay, ladies… All of you go scrub your nails with acetone." Ellen clapped her hands excitedly and jumped up and down with a huge grin on her face, "It's manicure time!"

On their way to the bathroom, Moira, Casey's mother, tossed her light blue wavy hair over her shoulder and leaned over close to Faye and asked, "So why were you so intent on keeping the guys out of the kitchen?"

"I didn't want them seeing the Jello shots I put in the fridge to chill. They'd never leave if they discovered them." Faye laughed.

"Good point, honey bee."

By the time the women returned to the living room, Ellen had set up all of her nail supplies on the coffee table, including the powders and chemicals to create solar nails. She even had a variety of polishes set out to create designs on the finished nails. The area around the couch had been turned into a salon with Ellen being the technician. There was even a pedicure tub set up with rose scented water bubbling inside it waiting for the first 'customer'. The Dawson women squealed in excitement at the prospect of being pampered.

Kate pulled Ava and Mae up on either side of her, "Ladies… Let the fun begin!"

Mae took off in the direction of the kitchen at a jog, "I'll get the chips and queso!"

* * *

><p>The time neared eight o' clock and all of the women were enjoying the night to the fullest. After receiving fresh manicures and pedicures, they had gathered in front of the TV to watch a classic chick flick, <em>The Notebook<em>, while shoveling down the Chex Mix and other snacks. They had boxes of Kleenex close by, for the tears started falling around the living room a good way into the movie. Even Ellen shed a few tears despite her usual hardcore nature. Some of the women were sitting on the floor and the rest draped across the couch haphazardly like a bunch of dolls that had been thrown down by a child no longer interested in playing with them. As much fun as they were having –bonding and whatnot– there was just something missing to make it the best night they'd had in a long time.

During the scene where the main characters were kissing in the middle of the rain, a loud belch disturbed the air, causing the women to turn and look at Ellen, who was lying upside down on the loveseat with her feet over the back of it. Ellen's eyes darted back and forth to see her family and Ava gawking at her awkwardly, and then she said, "Just because I have lady bits doesn't mean I can't let it out like a man. If given the opportunity I can chug a beer, let me tell ya."

Ava chose that moment to stand and stretch, yawning in the process. "Okay ladies, if we're done with this twelve-year-old sleepover crap, let's get out of here and go do something fun… something spontaneous."

"Club time!" Faye and Ellen shouted together, Ellen already climbing down from the loveseat and running for the bathroom with her best friend to change their wardrobes.

Taking Faye and Ellen's lead, Kate, Mae, Ava, and Moira made their way to the bedrooms where they helped each other pick out suitable outfits for the venue they were about to head to, none of them besides Faye and Ellen knowing where that may be. While Ava was helping Kate pin her hair up in a sassy style on the top of the blonde woman's head, Mae stepped sheepishly into the bedroom to find the younger women staring in shock; she wasn't sure whether it was from the fact that she was wearing strappy stiletto heels or the skin-tight emerald green strapless dress that only reached halfway down her thighs. The longer they stood there in complete silence, the more Mae began to worry.

"Is this a little too much for someone my age?" The older woman smiled faintly and actually blushed a little in response to the stares, "Moira said this getup would make me look younger and show off my curves for the hot fellas." She giggled along with the others at her comment.

"Look at that bombshell!"

All heads turned toward the doorway connecting Kate and Gabriel's bedroom to the bathroom. Leaning against the doorframe dressed in black leather pants and a black bustier decorated in large clear rhinestones was Ellen. A flash caught the women's eyes and they noticed silver chains hanging from the front belt loops of her pants to the back loops. She had let her hair down into a half up do, the front sections pulled back with a black rhinestone claw clip. More sparkle peeked out from underneath her hair: dime-sized cubic zirconium studs. To top off her own dangerous look, Ellen had switched her shoes to flat knee-high boots.

"Speak for yourself, Ellen!" Kate gasped as she slipped on a dark wash jean jacket over her sapphire blue sequined spaghetti strap shirt to go with her matching jeans. Her hair ended up being put into a messy bun.

The scarlet woman strutted past Kate on her way over to the vanity mirror above the dresser to touch up her makeup. "I have to look fabulous when I go clubbing."

As for Faye's choice of clothes, the lilac woman had changed into a silver mini skirt and a sunny yellow halter top. Her long, wavy hair had been pulled to the side in a sleek braid with fake colorful butterflies placed randomly about it. Her shoes were rather unique in that they were brown gladiators that wrapped halfway up her calves. The most striking feature was her long, glittery eyelashes. Katy Perry meets Grecian goddess they would describe her style.

With the Dawson women and Ava ready to go, each of them gathered up a little money, some of them shoving the bills into their cleavages for safe keeping. Not a hint of Kate's cash could be seen between her ample breasts. In fact, she could have probably concealed an entire wallet in her cleavage. She looked up in time to see Mae step out of the kitchen jingling the keys to Rob's silver truck before tossing them over to Ellen.

"Rob won't mind if we take his truck out for a joy ride." The dark purple woman turned toward Ellen with a sly grin on her face, "Ellen, why don't you get behind the wheel since you know where you're going."

Eager for some excitement, Ellen ran for the truck after snatching up her black leather jacket from the couch. The rest of the women followed after her and piled into the cab just as Ellen fired up the engine. They cranked up the radio as they turned onto the main road out of town, filling the truck with a heart-pounding bass. Even Mae was jamming along with the music. Onward the truck flew down the highway toward Ellen and Faye's former hometown of Paris, Texas.

Somewhere halfway between Jefferson and Paris, Moira wrapped her arms around Mae and Ava, "Ladies, this shall be a night we shall not forget. Let me hear your war cries!"

Loud choruses of yells echoed around the truck and out of the windows making the men in the truck beside them cock their heads and laugh at the sight of the women. Moira was right; they would never forget their night of being spontaneous.


End file.
